Machine for packaging articles



Aug. 24, 1965 H. GANZ MACHINE FOR PACKAGING ARTICLES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Aug. 9, 1957 Aug. 5 H. GANZ 3,202, 321

MACHINE FOR PACKAGING ARTICLES Original Filed Aug. 9, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR h f/y/ y cam z United States Patent M 1 Claim. (Cl. 271-51) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in machines for automatically packaging cans, bottles and similar articles. This application is a division of my co pending application Serial No. 47,892, filed August 4, 1960, granted Apr. 2, 1963, Patent No. 3,083,510, a continuation of my application Serial No. 677,387, filed Aug. 9, 1957, now abandoned. More particularly, the invention relates to sheet feeding devices for such machines.

In accordance with my invention, a plurality of roller means is disposed in the path of travel of the sheets being delivered from a hopper. One of such roller means has an axis of rotation substantially parallel to the face of the sheet being delivered adjacent thereto and at substantially right angles to the direction of feed. The other roller means is adjacent the first and has its axis of rotation substantially parallel to that of the first. The two roller means are held in peripheral driving engagement and the second roller means rolls around the first roller means until it rolls over the leading edge of the sheet being delivered. This rolling action increases the speed of rotation at the moment of contact with the leading edge of the sheet for increased effectiveness of the combined roller means in pulling the sheet between them.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side view of my improved sheet feeding device, showing the hopper and the two roller means;

FIGS. 25 are detail side elevational views illustrating the operation of the hopper and feed roller means.

In FIG. 1 which is a detailed side view of the hopper of my invention, there is shown a magazine or stack of blanks B. These blanks are placed into the hopper H by hand or other suitable manner. This stack is supported at the bottom by flange and by movable fingers In, which latter are pivotaily attached to rocker arm 17. This rocker arm is connected to link 18 which is in turn actuated by a cam (not shown) in any usual standard manner so as to impart a back and forth rocker motion to rocker arm 17, which pivots about shaft 121 suitably supported.

Positioned beneath the stack of blanks B in hopper H are suction cups 19. These cups are aligned and are connected to pipe 24) which in turn is connected by hose connections 26a to a vacuum manifold and pump (not shown). The pipe 2t) is connected to and supported upon rocker arm 22 which is pivotally supported upon a rotatable shaft 23 which in turn is supported in the usual manner to the standards which support the machine ele ments.

Pivotally attached to the same shaft 23 is another rocker arm 24 having a bar 25 extending upwardly from its free end, while at the other end of arm 24 is secured by nut and bolt 26 a roller 111a upon which means, such as a cam 111, operates for moving said rocker arm 24. When the cam end of arm 24 is pulled downwardly, the other end with its bar 25 moves upwardly against the bottom of the stack of blanks B.

When the bar 25 is in contact with the stack, the suction cup 19 is also in contact with the stack, which is resting upon and is supported by fingers 16 and flange 15.

At a predetermined time the finger support 16 is caused Bfifildfi Patented Aug. 24, 1965 to move outwardly away from the stack by movement of link 18 pulling upon end 21, causing the arm 17 to pivot about shaft 121. The removal of this support causes the weight of the stack to rest upon bar 25, and gives a flush contact with suction cup 19. The support arm with its bar 25 moves upwardly to take the weight. At a predetermined point the vacuum goes on and the suction cup begins a downward pull on the forward edge portion 27 of the blank (as hereinafter more fully explained). When the edge portion of the blank is pulled down a sulficiently short distance, the fingers 16 begin to return to their normal position to support the stack of blanks. However, since the bottom blank is held away from the stack by the suction cups, the fingers 16 do not touch the heldaway blank but continue in their path of movement above it and in under the stack. As soon as the fingers 16 come into supporting contact with the stack, the bar 25 moves away from the stack, thus leaving the bottom blank free to be pulled away.

During the time the bottom blank is being moved from beneath the stack, nip rollers 28, 23a are in operation. These rollers during the operation of the machine are continuously rotating. These rollers are positioned adjacent the forward end of the bottom of the stack so that as the suction cup brings a single blank B downward, its edge touches the lower nip roller 28a. At this time, the upper nip roller shaft 29 about which roller 28 is retating is caused to move in an arc in a direction towards the free edge 27 of the blank B. And, since both rollers are rotating about their shafts in the direction of the arrows, they will grip the edge of the blank when the smaller or upper nip roller shaft 28 in its arcuate movement comes into contact with the top of the blank B.

As the blank B moves between these nip rollers 28, 28a, it travels down onto endless chain belts 30 for delivery to endless chain belts 12.

As shown in FIG. 1, there are serrated grippers 88 positioned between the fingers 1 6. The serrated grippers 8% have a plurality of transverse serrations 89. Each serration is about the width of the thickness of the blank 1t). As the blanks in the magazine or hopper descend towards the fingers 16, they are separated at this point from each other by these serrations. The forward edges of the blanks snap from one serration to the next lower one in their downward travel. This allows the bottom blank at this point to be separated from the one above it when the suction cups 19 pull the bottom blank at its forward edge further downward after the fingers 16 have been moved outwardly and away from the stack. It prevents more than one blank at a time from being pulled downwardly by the suction cups 19. The chains 12 are driven by the usual mechanical means. In this instance the chains are propelled by sprocket wheels 32 mounted upon rotatable shaft 911 driven by mechanical means connected to a source of energy, such as a motor.

Endless chains 30 also travel over suitable sprocket wheels 91 mounted on rotatable shaft 92. Mounted on the same shaft 92 is the lower nip roller 28a. Positioned immediately above this shaft is the upper nip roller 28 mounted upon and rotatable with shaft 29.

The planetary motion of upper nip roller 28 in relation to lower nip roller 28a is controlled through arm and link connections 95, 95a, 9512, which in turn are actuated by cam means 96. The latter is mounted upon a main drive shaft 97 and activates arm and link connections 95, 95a, 95b at predetermined times in accordance with the rise or dwell of said cam 96. As shaft 97 rotates, it rotates cam 96.

Connected to the same shaft 97 are the arm supports 22 for the pipe 20 upon which is supported suction cups 19, and the support arm 2 t for the bar 25; and the endit less chains 99 riding over and being supported by sprocket wheel 100 and by wheel 101. Thus it can be seen that the pulling down of the blank B by suction cups 19, the delivery of the blanks over chains 39, the speed of chains and the moving of fingers 16 and bar 25 as well as the speed of chains 30 are all controlled by, and timed by the main drive shaft 97 which is connected to a source of energy in any suitable mechanical manner.

. FIGS. 2, 3, 4 and 5 illustrate the movements of the suction cups 19, the support fingers 16, and the bar 23, together with the operation of the nip rollers 28 and 28a. As here shown, the bottom portion of the hopper is illustrated in FIG. 6 in its normal position. The blanks are stacked in the magazine and are supported at the bottom by flange 15 and fingers 16 and by the support bar 25 with suction cup 19 pressed against the bottom blank. Fingers 16 are pivotally movable about shaft 121, as heretofore explained in connection with FIG. 1. In its motion, the support bar 25 is raised to take the weight of the stack off of fingers 16, the weight on flange 15 remaining as it was. As the weight is lifted off fingers 16 by bar 25, said fingers move outwardly from under said stack in the direction of ,the arrow of FIG. 3 and the suction cup is retracted downwardly, bringing with it the forward edge of the bottom blank, as shown in FIG. 4. V

blank, and the stack, which during the movement of the fingers 15 was supported by support bar 25, is now snpported by the fingers 16 and flange 15. The bar then descends so that it is out of contact with said bottom blank while the suction cup brings the blank down into contact with lower nip roller 28a. At this point the vacuum is broken, freeinglthe blank from the hopper.

While the movements of the support bar 25, fingers 16, suction cups 19 were taking place, nip roller 28a was continuously rotating clockwise in the direction of the arrow, and nip roller 28 was continuously revolving in a counterclockwise direction, as indicated. Rotating nip roller 28a remains in its position so that the forward or leading edge portion of the blank comes to rest thereon. As the blank was descending, the upper revolving nip roller 28 was moving in an are about roller 28a from its position shown in FIG. 2 to the position shown in phantom in FIG. 5 so that both nip rollers now act on the moving blank to propel it through said nip rollers onto chains 36 (FIG. 1), which latter carry said blank onto chain 12 in a forward and downwardly inclined directionv I claim:

In a machine for feeding sheets and the like at predetermined intervals from a delivery means to a receiving means, a plurality of roller means disposed in the path of travel of the sheets being delivered, one of said roller means having an axis of rotation substantially parallel to the face of the sheet being delivered adjacent thereto and at substantially right angles to the direction of feed, the other of said roller means being adjacent said one roller means and having its axis of rotation substantially parallel to that of said one roller means, means for rotating said oneuroller means, means for holding said other roller means in peripheral driving engagement with said one roller means so that said other roller means is continuously rotating in all positions thereof, said other roller means being driven only by said one roller means, and means for rolling said other roller means around the axis of said one roller means until it rolls over the leading edge of the sheet being delivered, the rolling action of said other roller means increasing the speed of rotation thereof at the moment of its Contact with the leading edge of the sheet for increased efiectiveness of the combined roller means in pulling the sheet between the two roller means.

References (lited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,488,667 4/24 Duncan 27132 2,335,064 11/43 Kabel 27l32 2,827,290 3/58 Dixon et al. T 271-32 ROBERT B. REEVES, Acting Primary Examiner.

ROBERT A. LEIGHEY, WILLIAM B. LABORDE,

' Examiners. 

